Protect yourself from fraud

As the global pandemic stopped physical interactions, digital activity soared. But so too did cybercrime. Read and watch our tips to stay safe.

Think you've fallen victim to fraud?

Please contact us on +44 (0)1624 645000 between Monday and Friday, 8am to 8pm (UK time), except for UK public holidays.

For all other times, please call +44 (0)20 8167 3223.

The UK time now is:

We will never ask you for your personal or security details, such as your full passwords, Visa PINs, or the names of authorised signatories on your account. We will sometimes send you a one-time passcode, to verify that payments, or online purchases, are genuine. Our staff will never ask you for these passcodes.

Use our mobile app or online wealth service to make payments, transfers and exchange currencies. This is the most secure and fastest way of transacting, and more information is available here.

You can also use Qwil, the secure messaging app, to communicate with the team, receive documents and stay in touch, regardless of your location.

We do our utmost to protect you from fraud, and it is why we often call you back on the contact number we hold for you to verify instructions.

Regularly check your financial transactions on all your bank accounts, either on printed statements or, better still, more frequently online.

If you are contacted by anyone identifying themselves as a Nedbank Private Wealth representative, but they do not follow our usual procedures, or if they ask you to tell them your passwords, passcodes, or Visa PINs, hang up. Then call Nedbank Private Wealth on the number you usually use.

Protect yourself with a strong password

Strong passwords include letters, numbers, capitals and special characters – the longer the better as the picture below shows:

Cash machines (ATMs) can be used to access your secure data through hidden cameras to collect your pin, before the machine retains your card. If your Visa Platinum debit card is retained by a machine, please call us immediately.

Scams by retail or hospitality staff who take your card out of sight and copy them are more common than you might think. If you think your Visa Platinum debit card may have been copied, please call us immediately.

Always look for the padlock symbol next to a web address. This should mean that your connection is encrypted and your login information cannot be intercepted.

Your online login details are unique and you should never share details, passwords or PINs with anybody else. Passwords and PINs should be regularly updated and always use different passwords for different accounts. If you need to store them, please use a password vault.

Access our cyber security insights

Take Five Week - 13 to 17 September 2021

13 Sep

| 3 mins

Take Five Week aims to keep you safe from cyber fraud and scams. Remain vigilant and remember to stop, challenge, protect!

Webinar: fraud and cybercrime

4 May

| 31 mins

During a 30 minute update, we looked at the types of scams that fraudsters and cybercriminals are currently running and how people are far too easily duped.

Attack of the clones and other investment stories

4 Mar

| 2 mins

Criminals have been quick to exploit the current pandemic and economic situation with ever more sophisticated scams. These include a significant number of frauds targeting investment clients.

Our top 10 cyber security tips

19 Nov

| 30 mins

The coronavirus pandemic has led to even higher levels of hacks and scams. Gavin Quiggin and Siobhan Fuller talked through 10 areas of cyber security to help you remain securer online, as well as flag some of the measures Nedbank Private Wealth has in place to protect clients' assets.

Types of fraud

Social engineering

This is where scammers use online information or conversations to gather personal information, and then use this information to ask you to confirm your identity.

By using specific details about you, the criminal can be very convincing and trick people into divulging more information, such as account numbers, passwords and the answers to security questions.

Phishing

A form of social engineering, phishing is either generic or specific, and takes on many forms. They all essentially seek the same outcome, i.e. that you reveal sensitive or confidential personal information by:

Threatening to revoke access to your account if you do not act immediately
Promising you a reward for logging into your account via the link provided
Indicating there is a confidential update that you can only retrieve by entering in your credentials
Physically getting you to do something, e.g. allow access to a building
Inducing you to download a file that contains malicious software (malware).

As mentioned, phishing can be across different channels, including:

Smishing, which is where people are targeted by text or SMS messages
Spear-phishing (also known as whaling), which is a highly targeted phishing attack masquerading as a legitimate email
Vishing, which is by phone or voice.

Spoofing

Often used in conjunction with social engineering, spoofing recreates emails, text messages and phone calls to deceive the recipients. Email addresses – from third parties or within your company – can be spoofed, as can phone extensions.

Malware

Malware is software that is designed to steal information or money. There are broadly four types of mal(icious) + (soft)ware:

Viruses: attached to a separate piece of software, it reproduces and ‘infects’ when that software is run
Worms: these are similar to viruses, but don’t need human interaction to cause damage
Trojans: as with the original wooden horse, these appear to be legitimate pieces of software that allow criminals access to information
Grayware: these are unwanted applications that limit the performance of computers and systems, leading to security risks.

Ransomware (where you need to pay a ransom to enable it to be removed) and spyware (hidden programs that collect information to distribute via the internet to criminals) are the most concerning of all malware.

Get in touch

If you are interested in becoming a client, please complete the form via the ‘become a client’ button below. Alternatively, if you are already a client, or if you have a question about how we help clients in particular circumstances, please use the ‘contact us’ button.

We will get back to you as soon as we can during office hours, which are Monday to Friday, 8am to 8pm (UK time), except for UK public holidays.